Well worth the wet!

WELL WORTH THE WET!

(Open Studios at The Floor, 8 Lower Ormond Street, Manchester, M1 5QF,
Friday 12 December 2003)

Lower Ormond Street? I had glanced at the map before setting off, and
there it was - off Cavendish Street. Braving the rain for what I
thought would be a short dash from the pub on Oxford Road in which I
was sheltering, I headed out into the deluge and found myself, a few
minutes later, wringing wet and fruitlessly enquiring directions of a
cassocked gentleman in a Catholic Church. Further increasingly damp
enquiries, an emergency leak in a back alley, and much meandering
around building sites later, I dripped my way up a staircase at the
right number of the confusingly discontinuous Lower Ormond Street.
"This had better be good!" I thought.

I was hungry and in need of a drink. Directed to the far end of the
corridor, I was delighted with what I found. A DJ was plying his mellow
trade to the right, and a table well-laden with imbibables and
comestibles was on the left. Much restored, though still dripping, I
started to investigate the studios lining the corridor.

Studio 14 was full of impressive electronic equipment. The guitar and
keyboard gave the game away, however - this was the home of a music
recording and editing outfit. Their flyer claims "relaxing atmosphere
and surroundings, voice overs and sound 2 picture" amongst other
selling points. I can testify to the former, and they obviously have
the gear for the latter, although it was E-bay and not music that was
the main focus of attention that evening: were the green antique shoes
slightly damaged? You can find out whether they purchased the
down-at-heel footwear by e-mailing singsing.music@virgin.net.

Lizzie Finlay's bright studio was adorned with the covers of kids'
books. Lizzie has illustrated Axel Feinstein's books, the British
editions of Wendelin van Draanen's Sammy Keyes series (about a
"seventh-grade sleuth"), and others - I got 42 hits on Amazon.co.uk!
Like all good art, her drawings are deceptively simple and convey
attitude and atmosphere with beautiful efficiency.

The same could be said for Nat Jenkins' work. At first glance it could
have been drawn by a child, and indeed, there is something childlike
about her in the flesh - it's the ebullience, enthusiasm and... the
lollipop stash! Sucking one of the latter, I started to read some of
the captions on her striking scribbly minimalist pen-and-ink sketches,
and, looking again at the pictures, the thought dawned that initial
appearances are often deceptive. Like the drawings they accompany, the
words seem to be crudely rendered (in fact, like a recalcitrant third
grader, she has little truck with grammar, orthography and punctuation)
but this is all part of what is surely the calculated Trojan-horse
nature of her art. Give them a bit of time and her apparently slapdash,
cheery, chirpy and quirky works transform into something much more
powerful, even sinister. Two examples may help clarify things: "You
can't see all my bruises yet" and "innit crap wen Friend die ". I'll
let you imagine the pictures. Given the power of her work, then, it's
not that surprising that Nat has been commissioned to illustrate the
Bible. It would be wrong to imply that all her work deals with heavy
subjects or has a sting in its tail, for many of her pictures for the
Good Book are just charming in their simplicity. Mmmn, lollipops: at
one end a stick, at the other something sweet!

"A-Line" Jayne Turner's tidy studio had a clean work surface to the
left and neat racks of itsy-bitsy crop-tops and other girly garments to
the right. At the back were her sewing machines, impressively robust
mechanical items in an age of sleek electronics. The walls were adorned
with fashion photographs and illustrations, many of the latter by the
multi-talented Mancunian style guru, illustrator and ceramicist Paula
McNamara (www.paulamcnamara.net). A customer desperate to purchase
asked me if I knew where A-Line was. "Feareth not, distressed damsel,
she appeareth!" and, lo, the curly-headed Cumbrian creator was there.
Jayne was her usual chipper self, although self-confessedly exhausted
after touting her wares at the Birmingham clothes show. I asked her
about her "USP" (unique selling point). She told me that she prides
herself on the simplicity of her design, the flattering nature of the
garments, and the femininity of the fabrics. Designer, machinist, and
marketer of her wares, Jayne supplies a number of chic boutiques and
designer outlets in Manchester and beyond, as well as selling her
clothes directly. Looking at the enticing rows of simple, flattering
and feminine items, I asked her where the creative process started.
"With the fabric. I choose most of it locally. The design is inspired
by the cloth." Although I'm not in any danger of being labelled a
fashion victim, it was obvious even to me that Jayne and her wonderful
clothes have something special. With the right promotion she could be
more stellar than Stella - the lager and the McCartney.

Speaking of Stella McCartney, Paul has just produced another sibling
for her. I wonder if Heather had her maternity wear designed by her
step-daughter? If not, she could have done a lot worse than get her
clothes from Eider, whose workshop is at 8 Lower Ormond Street. Since
the retail outlet moved from Burton Road, West Didsbury, to 12 Barton
Arcade on the Deansgate, business has apparently boomed for this
purveyor of the One Cool Chick label, providing "trendy and sexy
maternity clothing for fashion-conscious women". In view of the
adjustable waistbands, you can apparently continue to wear many of
their items after the sprog has arrived! Having already confessed my
lack of clothing credentials, I'm not going to pretend to be qualified
to pass judgement but they do look good to me. You can make up your own
mind (and even order clothes) on their excellent website
(www.eider.org). Eider have a look, if I were you!

Another website-owning fashion label based in the Lower Ormond Street
studios is elec/tr-c'ity (www.electricity-web.co.uk). The website is a
work of art itself, and the clothes are beautifully presented! I also
picked up their very smart fold-out card flyer, entitled "cold 2003",
which bears seven photographs presumably showing this season's clothes.
The credits on this publicity material tell one a lot about who's who
in the Manchester fashion world. Paula McNamara's name again appears -
this time in stylist guise. Hair and make up are by Michaela Taylor
(who often collaborates with Paula), the photographer is Tim McConville
(look for his work on www.the-aop.org) and the graphic design is by
Leemarvin (www.leemarvin.co.uk).

Joey Collins, graphic designer and photographer with Leemarvin, handed
me a beer as he showed me round the studio that he shares with Paula
Taras, graphic designer of Tyme Design (www.tymedesign.com). (To judge
by the posters on display, Tyme Design has been responsible for
advertising the Chinese Arts Centre amongst many other projects.) My
eye was particularly drawn to Joey's albums of superb colour
photographs taken in Barcelona. Joey does not appear to be one for
conventional tourist shots, focussing rather on the seedy and
dilapidated side of things. Far from depressing, however, his
artistically framed shots of peeling walls covered with the tattered
remnants of posters and so on - photographic objets trouv?s - were
wonderfully aesthetic, pin-sharp and glowing with rich colour. They
conveyed the same vitality as Wim Wenders' vision of Havana in his film
The Buena Vista Social Club. If Barcelona's detritus can look this good
it's a glorious place indeed.

My last port of call was The Manchester Screen Print Company's new
premises. As they had only just moved into their studio (15a) they
hadn't had time to produce any promotional materials. Martin, however,
did a good job of showing me round the impressively large space and
explaining the multi-stage printing process, and Nick told me how
fortunate they had been to be able to buy most of the equipment from
someone leaving the craft. They did have a number of witty T-shirts on
display proudly bearing that icon of Britishness - the Marmite
jar.

From Marmite to honey, it was finally time to leave "the unique hive of
creativity" as this nest of artists described itself on the flyer
advertising the evening's event. I headed out into the persistent
Mancunian rain, no longer resenting it - it was a price well worth
paying to meet such enthusiastic and talented people.